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How Nikkhil Advani is Reviving Indie Cinema At G5A
With a commitment to diverse storytelling, The G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture — and its Cinema House in particular — puts independent voices front and centre, with the renowned filmmaker leading the charge.
A home for “experimental and independent arts practice,” G5A was the brainchild of architect and filmmaker Anuradha Parikh [Founder and Artistic Director, G5A]. As a multi-functional community space and cultural centre, it aims to further socio-cultural dialogues predominantly through art, cinema and music.
The cinema front, called the G5A Cinema House, is led by filmmaker Nikkhil Advani, the man behind recent shows like Freedom at Midnight (2024) and classic films like Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003). He, Anuradha Parikh and Ishan Benegal [Artistic Director, G5A], with the support of BNP Paribas, are dedicated to becoming a strong voice for independent cinema in India.
“I grew up around film festivals. I used to follow [filmmaker] Sudhir Mishra and [film editor] Renu Saluja as a young intern and assistant at festivals where like-minded people would come together and sit down on the floor, on gaddas [floor cushions], sometimes on rickety chairs,” Advani recalls. While that is not the case at G5A, there are times — for instance during the Irrfan (1967-2020): A Retrospective they hosted — when they had to add extra chairs and people still sat on the ground, and in the aisles.
Whether it’s a short, a documentary or a full-length feature film, they offer audiences a platform to interact with the filmmakers, the cast and crew. The Hollywood Reporter India asked Advani to talk about G5A Cinema House’s journey, how it’s bringing back a love of indie films, and the G5A Initiative’s holistic vision.
You are the only filmmaker on the G5A’s advisory council. What’s your ultimate goal for the G5A Cinema House?
I am, though I don't know how that happened! (Laughs) I think we are already seeing the fruit of our idea. The idea is to let filmmakers know that there is a platform, a safe space where they can loudly say whatever they want to. Our curators tell us what we should be showcasing. We usually have a broad theme, like around March 8, which is Women's Day, when we want to screen films made by women filmmakers or stories that showcase strong women, and get interesting panelists to talk about them. We may even pair a filmmaker with a Women's Rights activist to achieve a kind of synergy. We also have an entire month dedicated to climate, one to queer cinema, one to shorts and even documentaries. I think we’ve achieved our ultimate goal because filmmakers are chasing us to screen their films. We have two retrospectives in the year, too — last year, we had Shyam Benegal and Irrfan Khan; this year we have one on Mani Ratnam, which is in the planning stages right now, and on Shabana Azmi in March. The challenge for us lies in understanding how we should make ours different.
How did you make your Irrfan Khan retrospective stand out?
Well for one, Irrfan’s wife, Sutapa Sikdar and his son, Babil Khan were involved with the retrospective. The eight-nine films that we screened were completely curated by them — Irrfan's favorites. I was heartbroken D-Day (2013) was not there! (Laughs) I'm just joking. Sutapa co-moderated the sessions and sat on the panels. We also had [filmmakers] Asif Kapadia come in from London, Mira Nair from Sundance Film Festival and Anup Singh. [Filmmaker and composer] Vishal Bhardwaj spent the whole day at G5A, while [singer] Rekha Bhardwaj sang Irfan's favourite songs. We also welcomed [screenwriter] Tigmanshu Dhulia and I got [writer-director] Meghna Gulzar to join in from a jungle somewhere. The actors he worked with, like Nimrat Kaur, Konkona Sen Sharma, Neeraj Kabi, Parvathy — who came from Kerala — were all there too. My biggest contribution to the G5A and the G5A Cinema House is to use my phone effectively. I call and stalk the industry on WhatsApp and say, aajao [come]! People like [casting director] Honey Trehan, [filmmakers] Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and [actress] Richa Chadha are friends of G5A. They are there all the time.
The G5A Cinema House is dedicated to independent, regional contemporary world cinema. What does the selection process look like?
Our curators, even Reshma [Senior Lead, Programs and Projects, G5A], watch everything and they are well connected to the indie film world. We keep our eyes wide open with regards to the big entries to the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Dehradun International Film Festival or MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. Sometimes, Anurag Kashyap messages me to say that he just saw a fantastic film and I should see it too, or Vikramaditya Motwane tells me he read a great script and a year from now, that film will come out. It’s about talking to people. Now that G5A is being considered a valid home for Indian cinema, my friends, [filmmakers] Hansal [Mehta] and Kabir [Khan] and Sudhir Mishra also message me with ideas.
Who are some of the artists you have enjoyed collaborating with?
I'm so grateful to people like Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap. They leave everything behind when I tell them to come. Once Anurag was shooting in Lucknow, and after a hard day of shooting, he still joined the discussion. I really enjoy it when Naseeruddin [Shah] Saab and Ratna [Pathak] ma’am come and sit in the audience. One very special moment was when we finished showing Joyland and Saab had joined from Karachi, online. He put his hand up and said, ‘Young man, my name is Naseeruddin Shah and if you have another script that you would like to share with me, I would love to be part of your film.’ It's so interesting, right? He [director Saim Sadiq] went crazy.
How do you bring them in to watch independent cinema that doesn't have that kind of popularity?
Young film students and people working in media and entertainment — they're a very wide group of people. I mean, we are not looking at getting a million people to watch. But even if one has, at any point, appreciated any kind of quality, independent voice, this is the place for them to come. We are not chasing numbers, but for me, it's very important to see the ‘house full’ board outside G5A, because for a filmmaker who comes over, that feels so gratifying… to walk into a darkened space of 110 people who are all asking such valid questions, inquiring, praising and sometimes criticising. And from all over India! I think more and more people are following us on Instagram, following our newsletter, asking what is happening next at G5A.
Which have been your favourite films to have been screened there?
Joyland (2022). I loved it, I thought it was so moving. All that Breathes (2022) too — [director] Shaunak Sen said that we could do one session, one film and it sold out in 10 minutes. I called him to ask if we could do three more when he was in Germany and he said yes… we had four screenings that day.
There's no other place in India where something like this could happen.
That's sad. Filmmaking should be devoid of borders.
How do you see art and cinema taking shape in the next decade in India?
It's thriving. The indie voice is very much alive. It's important that filmmakers like my contemporaries and I give back to the industry. My day job is to look at the box-office, but the thing that gratifies me most are the weekends that I come to G5A’s Cinema House and everybody tells me how fantastic it is. At some point we’d like to be doing our own big festival of cinema, 10 days of it. That's possibly our next big step.